The Senate has called for the interim management financial report of the Nigerian Port Authority (NPA) as Senators continue to look into all the revenue windows to fund the 2024 budget of N27.5 trillion.
The directive was given on Wednesday by the Senate Committee on Finance chaired by Senator Sani Musa.
“You are to submit your report to the Clerk of the committee as directed”, Musa told the ports authority’s management.
The committee had met with revenue agencies, including the NPA, the Nigerian Upstream Regulatory Commission (NURC) and the Nigerian Downstream and Midstream Regulatory Commission (NDMRC) on Wednesday.
Responding to questions from lawmakers, the Managing Director of the NPA, Mohammed Bello-Koko, disclosed that the authority owned assets valued in excess of N798 billion, including up to eight landed properties located in the United Kingdom.
Bello-Koko said the authority had a revenue target of N572.8bn for 2024, adding that it was optimistic that the target would be met.
“There is transparency in our revenue collection. Our revenue goes to the CBN via TSA.
“So, our operations are open”, he told the committee.
When asked if he was sure that the NPA would meet the revenue target, the MD replied, “yes, we will meet it.”
However, some senators considered the N572.8bn to be “small” and enjoined Bello-Koko to work harder to exceed it.
Only last week, the Senate Committee on Public Account, at a separate hearing on the 2019 report of the Office of Auditor-General of the Federation, had alleged that the authority failed to collect $852 million and N1.8bn from terminal operators.
But, in its response 48 hours later, the NPA blamed the issue on what it called faulty concessions which the federal government sighed with the operators.
At Wednesday’s session with the finance committee, the NURC, just like the NPA, assured the committee that it would meet its revenue projection for 2024.
The agency said it surpassed a revenue target of N1.9trn in 2020; generated N3.9trn in 2021, up from the projected N3.05tn; realised N3.78tn in 2022 as against the targeted N3.19tn; and a 94% revenue target for 2023 as September.
. TheWitness
